Motorcycle rider from Ionia was planning to propose marriage before March crash

Courtesy PhotoJonathan Nielan was planning to propose marriage to his girlfriend Lyndsey Schanski before a motorcycle crash last month in Berlin Township that devastated Nielan's body. He was taken off life support this weekend in Grand Rapids.

IONIA, MI — In the days following a serious motorcycle accident that put Jonathan Nielan on life support in the hospital, his sister and girlfriend made a heart-wrenching discovery. While searching for Nielan’s wallet, the two women found an engagement ring in the glove compartment of his car. Nielan, who was apparently planning to pop the question to his girlfriend, Lyndsey Schanski, was taken off life support and died on Saturday at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids. The 28-year-old Stockbridge native spent the past four weeks on life support after

into a ditch shortly before 8 p.m. on West Riverside Drive in Berlin Township on March 20. “He was a good kid, just getting started,” said Nielan’s father, John Nielan. “It’s a pretty devastating thing, but the staff at Spectrum were just incredible.” Nielan and his wife, Diane, are making funeral arrangements today in Ionia for their son, a Stockbridge High School graduate who returned from Chicago last year upon graduating from the Universal Technical Institute there. He returned with his girlfriend, Schanski, and found a job at her father’s

dealership in Ionia, where he was making a name for himself as a valuable addition to the parts department, his father said. The couple bought and fixed-up an Ionia home and were planning their lives together. She is a hair stylist who followed him to Chicago and back. Jonathan loved soccer and had worked at a local hardware store growing up in Stockbridge, and briefly owned his own landscaping business. He was extremely close to his sister, Christine, and he and his father were in the middle of fixing up a 1986 Buick. He also leaves behind a yellow lab named Elvis. The accident brought the Schanski and Nielan families together. “We all became family during this tragedy,” said John Nielan. “We faced it, talked about what going to happen. It was like we knew each other for 50 years.” The police said Jonathan took a gravel-strewn corner too fast on a back-road and wasn’t able to continue through the turn when a vehicle appeared coming the opposite direction. His 2006 Yamaha crossed the center line, careened off the road, hit a tree stump and rolled several times. The impact deflated both of Nielan's lungs, broke his neck, ribs, pelvis, shoulder blades, knees and back in two places. Wearing a helmet, Nielan only sustained minor scratches to his face. Heavily sedated, he only regained consciousness once while in the hospital. Doctors sought lung transplant programs in other cities, including Cleveland, but Nielan had broken too many bones and lost too much muscle mass. For much of his stay, Nielan was hooked to a special artificial lung device that doctors said was one of only two in use nationwide. “He just couldn’t survive because of the lung damage,” John Nielan said. “Those doctors did everything. They just said there were no more options. That’s all we could do.” John and Diane chose to take their son off life support Saturday morning. They received a call shortly afterward from a nurse who grew close to Jonathan. They also received an outpouring of support from the community in Stockbridge, he said. People sent gas cards to cover travel, prayer cards, sprung for meals and more. The Nielans are grateful. As for the engagement ring, “he did a real fine job on that,” said John Nielan. “It’s a fine ring.” The family is making arrangements through the Lehman Funeral Home in Ionia to have Jonathan cremated. There will be an upcoming memorial service at a local church in Stockbridge.